Ranbir Kapoor does not have a PR person, is not on social media and tries his best to guard his private life as much as he can.
He loves the movies and wants just his work to speak for him. But he is also a superstar and one whom the media loves to write and speculate about. For the very first time, he talks exclusively to the Bombay Times about the status of the Sanjay Dutt biopic and how he is yet not engaged to his lady-love Katrina Kaif. Excerpts:
Are you playing Sanjay Dutt in Raju Hirani’s biopic of him?
Mr. Hirani has spoken to me about making Sanjay Dutt’s biopic and that is very exciting to me. Sanjay Dutt has been family to me and I have been a fan of his. He is the only one whose poster I had in my cupboard. My sister had Salman Khan’s poster and I had Sanjay Dutt’s. And while playing Sanjay Dutt will be exciting for me, Mr. Hirani has not confirmed that to me yet. Raju Hirani is not a director who you can keep calling and asking, if that film is happening or not.
Will Raju Hirani be directing it?
Yes. Biopics are tricky. When you announce it, it sounds fine, but to make a film on a celebrity with a large body of work is very hard. You can’t do birth to death. There have to be certain chapters of his life that are engaging, that have to be flagpole moments of a person’s life that need to be captured. It’s tricky because it also has to be seamless. Anurag Basu also wants to make Kishore Kumar’s biopic and we actually wanted to make it before Barfi, but then Barfi happened. And now Jagga Jasoos has happened. Biopics are very hard to write. These big directors understand that. A biopic has to celebrate their lives as best as possible. It has to entertain, at the same time, it does not have to be a propaganda film. It has to be honest and you have to portray them as grey, as who they really are. We all are grey. It’s not supposed to glorify somebody, it’s supposed to glorify someone’s human side.
What has been your connection with Sanjay Dutt?
Since the time I was born, he showered me with a lot of love and gifted me with a lot of gifts. My mother and he were very friendly. My bua, Reema Jain, was also very friendly with him. He has done so many films with my father. He lives five minutes away from me. So many times he would pick me up in his Ferrari and take me for drives. He would send me jeans, watches, he has bought me a Harley Davidson bike, he really spoilt me silly and he would love telling stories about his life. Every time I met him he would have atleast 10 interesting stories or his experiences to tell. I guess Mr. Hirani has heard this and as a director and writer, he saw the potential in all of this. He definitely thinks it could make a great movie.
Will you ever direct a film?
I once made an immature comment that I would direct two years after I started. But working with all these great directors, I realise my value and how immature that statement was. But to be honest, I have finally found a story which I have shared with Imtiaz Ali and Ayan Mukerji and they both have been encouraging me to write. Actually, Katrina told me that I don’t have an imaginative mind. And that challenged me and hurt me. I decided to come up with a story and prove her wrong. Imtiaz has told me to think and write just a scene a day and that’s what I am right now doing.
There is so much speculation about whether Katrina and you have got engaged. Are you engaged to her?
No, I am not. Engagement is to tell the world that right now we are promised to get married. I have not reached that place in my life. I really wished that tabloids, magazines and news channels stop making conjectures about that as it spoils the spontaneity of it when it finally happens. I am trying to guard my personal life and live a life that is apart from my movie life and out of public eye. If I have to get engaged, I can’t hide that. I want to have a family, have children. So, when I get engaged, I will certainly announce it.
You never respond to all the speculations in the media about you?
Today, with social media, with internet, even if a random internet website writes an article that Ranbir has urinated on the side of a street, everyone picks it up and the audience tends to believe it. What do you do? If I start contradicting each story then I am falling prey to them and I will then have to contradict everything as what I don’t contradict, they will assume to be true. So, it’s a tricky spot. I don’t want to sound like a cry baby, but audiences are making strong perceptions about you based on what they read and unfortunately, that’s not about your work. So, it’s a catch 22. But, I do hope my work speaks 10,000 times more than a factually incorrect article written about me.
Source Times Of India
